5 CAP CITY | See the world 17 FOOD | The Sioux Chef 19 MUSIC | Die Musikmeisters FREE September 9-15, 2021 • Vol. 47, No. 7 George Ryan looks back He stopped the death penalty, then went to prison himself 12 POLITICAL HISTORY | David Blanchette September 9-15, 2021 | Illinois Times | 1 2 | www.illinoistimes.com | September 9-15, 2021 NEWS State Journal-Register building up for auction Questions linger about the future of Springfield’s daily paper MEDIA | Scott Reeder The State Journal-Register building will be the State Journal-Register. auctioned this month, raising questions Mahan said the newspaper only has about the future of Springfield’s daily four news reporters covering the entire newspaper. community. By contrast, the SJ-R and “I remember moving into that building Copley had five people covering just the in the 1980s – it had so much room,” said Illinois Statehouse before the Gatehouse retired columnist Toby McDaniel. “I can’t acquisition. blame them for wanting to sell it now. “The reporters at the State Journal-Register Their staff is so small that they don’t need a are working their butts off,” McDaniel said. building that big, and they have to pay taxes “I know two of them, and they are absolute on it and try to maintain it.” workhorses.” As advertising dollars have shifted from But the smaller staff has resulted in fewer newspapers to the internet during the last Springfield-area news stories being written. decade, publishers nationwide have taken McDaniel said fewer people are reading a near formulaic approach: move printing, the newspaper because it has less local copy editing and circulation functions to news. Coburn added that reader habits have centralized hubs and cut staff. The banner hanging above the front door of the State Journal-Register building reads: Auction Sept. 13-15, changed as people seek more of their news And the final move often is to sell their Tours Sandy Hamilton 217-778-1010, Register LOOPNET.COM, Re/Max Professionals, BellCornerstone. from social media and other online sources. building. CREDIT: STACIE LEWIS Newby, the national newspaper Today, the SJ-R is printed in Peoria, its consultant, said as advertising revenue has circulation call center is in Arizona and copy dropped, papers have tried to make up the editors design its pages in Texas, or in their elsewhere in Springfield. The online auction Newby, a national newspaper consultant who shortfall by increasing subscription rates. homes scattered across the country. The news is slated to begin Sept. 13 and close Sept. 15. has been a publisher in Illinois, Indiana and “Let’s say you have 20,000 subscribers; staff has atrophied from about 60 people “Newspapers once would build big Oklahoma. you double your rates and 10,000 people to just nine full-time employees, said Ryan buildings in downtowns as a statement Former State Journal-Register publisher cancel because they don’t want to pay that Mahan, who leads the newsroom’s union. that they were important and that they Pat Coburn agreed. much. Well, revenue-wise, you are coming But it’s not just the size of the staff that were prominent in the community. Now, “This is what happens when you have out the same – even though you have lost has dropped. In 2007, the SJ-R claimed a papers across the country are selling their money people, not news people, running half your subscribers.” print weekday circulation of 50,212. Today, downtown buildings because they need things,” he said. “Hedge funds and investors Newby said such moves may help a according to the Illinois Press Association, it the cash. They don’t want to send this are buying up newspapers all across the newspaper’s bottom line in the short term is 12,932. message, but the reality is they are saying: country. To me, that building is symbolic. It but they are hardly a strategy for long-term SJ-R editor Leisa Richardson has said ‘We’re no longer important. We’re no longer is emblematic of the role of newspapers. It success. once the building sells, the staff will relocate prominent in this community,’” said John is right across the street from government. Union president Mahan indicated there is The role of a newspaper is to keep an eye on little reason for optimism. government.” “Every time there’s a cut, every time The building, located at 1 Copley there’s opportunity for layoffs, or whatever, Editor’s note Plaza near the intersection of Ninth Street you think, there’s nothing more to cut,” and Capitol Avenue, is just south of the he said. “They can’t get any less than this. We have two new staff writers reporting for Illinois Times. Scott Reeder and Kenneth Lowe Sangamon County courthouse and east of And yet every time you feel that way, they have been contributing articles occasionally; now their work will appear weekly in these Springfield’s city hall. find some other way to cut or not rehire. It’s pages. Reeder, a resident of Sherman, is a veteran Statehouse reporter, having worked for Coburn, who started at the SJ-R as a really depressing.” several news organizations, including the Small Newspaper Group and Illinois News Network. police reporter and retired four decades Editor Richardson said she could not say His weekly opinion column, which appears regularly in many Illinois newspapers, becomes later in 2006 as publisher, left shortly before what Gannett will do with the proceeds of a regular feature of the expanded IT opinion section. Kenneth Lowe of Springfield, who has California-based Copley Press sold its Illinois the building’s sale. been a reporter for the Decatur Herald and Review and Bloomington Pantagraph, has spent holdings, including the SJ-R, to New York- “I’m not optimistic that they ever will recent years employed in communications and media relations, first for Lieutenant Gov. based GateHouse Media. GateHouse has really invest more money into staff or Sheila Simon, then for the office of the Illinois Senate President. We urge our readers to take since acquired Gannett and assumed its anything like that,” Mahan said. “I can see note of these new bylines, and to engage with the journalists behind them. name. someone from Gannett putting on an old We note the passing of Adlai Stevenson, who dropped the III after he’d earned the name. The Sangamon County Assessor’s office coat that they haven’t worn for 10 years and As state representative, Illinois treasurer, U.S. senator for 10 years and two-time candidate lists the fair market value of the building at finding, you know, a billion dollars. But for governor, Stevenson represented the best traditions of Illinois politics and ethics. His $1,457,889. The building, which has been even then, I don’t think they’re going to add crafted speeches filled the 1970s with possibilities. His kindness and friendship inspired this on the market for almost 10 years, has in another staff member to our paper.” reporter. – Fletcher Farrar, editor the past been listed for prices ranging from $1.75 million to $2.9 million, according to Contact Scott Reeder at [email protected]. September 9-15, 2021 | Illinois Times | 3 NEWS The imaginary, languishing lake Plans for a recreational Hunter Lake face scrutiny DEVELOPMENT | Kenneth Lowe The more than 40-year saga of water recreation activities was not the proposed “Hunter Lake” having enough time. continues, with the city of “The study does not show Springfield now arguing for that a third lake within 15 miles the lake to be used not just as a of two existing lakes would supplemental water source, but as a affect the majority of the survey means of more lakeside recreation. respondents whose needs cannot As it has since the project began be met except by increasing their 2018 inbound exchange students from Italy, long ago, the proposal also faces interest, improving their health, Norway, Japan, Brazil and Venezuela. criticism from detractors. increasing their available time, or PHOTO COURTESY BARB MALANY Springfield has planned, studied providing equipment they lack,” and debated the creation of the his email read. Springfield Mayor See the world. proposed 3,000-acre lake since Jim Langfelder argued the study long before it applied for a 1989 shows that the Springfield area Change your life. permit with the federal Army would benefit from the addition of Corps of Engineers, which kicked the recreation provided by Hunter CAP CITY Karen Ackerman Witter off decades of environmental Lake, and that adding it would studies, public comment periods also preserve the viability of Lake Students who study abroad have life- and more studies. Springfield. changing experiences. So do those who host At issue is whether the Corps Opponents have also renewed a student from another country. of Engineers will approve a permit their arguments calling into Area high school students can apply to for the lake to be created, a question as well the lake’s necessity study abroad during the 2022-2023 school determination made after a cost- as a water supplement. Don Davis, year through the Rotary Youth Exchange to-benefit analysis is made. The another longtime opponent, argued Program. More than 40 countries participate. first official mention of the lake’s in his comments to the Corps of Students must be between 16 and 18 ½ years use for recreation came nearly 30 Engineers that the planned closure of age when they leave. years after that first application, of three of CWLP’s coal-fired power Although some students fear they when the city – in late 2018 – plants would reduce water use by will miss something by leaving for a year, asked the Army Corps of Engineers A drafted map shows the proposed Hunter Lake to the right of Lake Spring- about 10.9 million gallons per students who participate routinely have more field.CREDIT: PUBLIC DOMAIN, CWLP.COM to add recreation to the goals of day.